Product Description

Jim Goad’s brief career as an underground celebrity has been studded with controversy, from an obscenity trial over a much-reviled “rape issue” of his online magazine, to a White House shooting in which the perpetrator quoted Goad’s writing, to a two-and-a-half-year stint in prison for assault. Shit Magnet is his manifesto, written while he was incarcerated. The book’s theme is guilt — how the act of blaming the enemy and slaying him is history’s propulsive force. Preferring the role of “shit magnet” to “pity sponge,” he explores the disabling effects of guilt; uncovers sinister forces behind fashionable stances on race, gender, and criminal justice; and offers his own life as an example of how “evil” can be imprinted on a person from an early age. Goad is the former publisher of the legendary zine Answer Me! and the author of The Redneck Manifesto.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #580319 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 328 pages

Customer Reviews

Uneven, But Brilliant in Spots
Having been a huge fan of "Answer Me" and "The REdneck Manifesto," I was surprised at first to discover that this book's general tone was not full-on rage and humor, but rather depression and despair. This must rank as one of the saddest books ever written. The sadness leaks through every page.

The book is very, very hard to read and almost impossible to enjoy. There are sections, like the chapter about the British youths who committed suicide, that rank as the best stuff Jim Goad has ever written.

Amid all the sadness, there are some eye-opening observations about social hypocrisy, especially the way that disputes between males and females are viewed.

I'm waiting for his Gigantic Sex book. It looks like he's learned to have fun since this last book.

''Oh Lord, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood...''
Jim Goad's life and writing career has been one apocalyptic roller coaster ride to hell. This book wasn't intended as an autobiography, but it becomes one early on and Goad evinces such a magnetic personality that its really hard to put this book down. Goad's writing career began when he published the 'zine called Answer ME! with his then wife Debbie. The zines were an unprecedented exercise in misanthropy that lead to underground notoriety. They then put out the fourth edition, entitled 'The Rape Issue' which scared away all the ironic hipster poseurs and got Goad into trouble with the law. This book chronicles his life and the s*** Goad has had to deal with once the wheels of infamy were set into motion. What makes Goad so charismatic is his ability to admit all his flaws and his unflappable wit. The guy unapolagetically spills the beans on his life. His abusive, guilt-ridden upbringing, his damaged youth, his marriage to a dim Long Island yenta who eventually drove him into the arms of other women, and sent him into the direction of a psychotic fan named Ann. Here's a woman so deranged and manipulative and possessive that Goad had to fall for her, being a lover of damaged goods. The book is certainly compelling, though at times redundant, especially when Goad keeps returning, masochistically, into the arms of Anne, admittedly from a fear of being alone. Goad never really paints a pretty picture but neither does he absolve himself, also painting an ugly portrait of himself in the process (the guy was cheating on his wife, with Anne, while she slowly died from cancer.) The most intriguing part of the book is how Goad challenges long-accepted notions of proper conduct - don't provoke people by satirically challenging notions of women as sacred beings and their bodies as sacred temples; don't hit a woman no matter how many times she's provoked you or threatened your life; don't dare write something that might inspire deranged individuals to misinterpret your words and attack the White House with a shooting spree. Like his earlier book, The Redneck Manifesto, Goad once again puts together an impressive piece of work that provides us with a glimpse of one of America's leading agitators and pundit of politically 'unacceptable'' thought, manner and behaviour.

Portland's Other Literary Low Pressure Sodium Light
James Thaddeus Goad is not, in any sense, innocent. He (in reality) singlehandedly produced the "zine" that effectively put paid to the self-referential, pompous,and usually inept zine culture, basically by being so offensive to the status quo that it simply gave up in frustration. He's been a poster boy for dubious judgment, pleading guilty to an offense that anyone else would have went to trial for and won, and served nearly three years. And, yes, he did the deed: he beat the snot out of a female, a mistress who had hit, tormented, and threatened him so badly that he had had a protection order taken out against her (he did, however, continue to have wild sex with her on a daily basis). Goad says-and it's absolutely true-that had he not been a notorious, politically offensive writer, he would probably have received counseling and a small fine for the offense which could have put him away until he was old enough for Social Security.

All through the convoluted and often ugly story which this book tells-and quite competently-Goad realizes he's doing the wrong thing, for the wrong reasons, at the wrong time, and in the wrong place. Yet Goad-who is obviously intelligent, driven, physically fit, and obsessively introspective-seems doomed by his own compulsion to follow a path he realizes is going to cause him serious trouble. And, it does.

Goad winds up in the Oregon correctional system, one of the few in the country where whites are not a minority, and serves his time without any life-threatening incidents: boredom, frustration, and petty annoyances are the order of the day, not shankings and rape. But Goad clearly does not belong in prison, and it's clear-not just to Goad, but to any rational observer-that Goad is far more victim than perpetrator here.

This book, apparently written during Goad's incarceration, is a readable narrative and, for most of us, a reminder that free speech is never really free: alienate the wrong (or right) people enough and if they get the chance to nail you, they will.